The Source

To understand what has happened at the DRPA, we need to go back a few years. So, I am going to get a little James Michener ( yet another sophisticated literary reference…Aw yeah ) and go through some of the history ( yes, I know Bob Ingle did this already ).

The year was 2003, and Democrats wanted control of the state Senate. Republican John Matheussen was offered the job as DRPA CEO by Governor Jim McGreevey, and he agreed to take it. Fred Madden the Democrat was elected to the old seat forcing the Senate out of a 20-20 tie ( Btw – You gotta wonder where the Republican party was to allow this to happen???!!! ). I was actually at Madden headquarters that election night covering for NJN News. Anyway, as part of the agreement, Matheussen and a handful of others were permitted to stay in the NJ pension system, which required a change in the law.

And here is the list of New Jersey pension keepers at the DRPA with their salaries. Mike Joyce is one of them. He resigned two weeks ago as Public Safety Director after he gave an E-Z pass which did not belong to him to his daughter. ( Just click on it to enlarge )

Well, as CEO Matheussen was given his $219,000 salary plus his more than $16,000 annual car allowance. And apparently, on at least one occasion that we know about, he didn’t want to use his car ( despite that allowance ) to attend a meeting. Here is an email exchange with DRPA Corporate Secretary John Lawless from 2008. Lawless apparently had the nerve to question whether Matheussen and others needed a pool car to travel. Point of clarification: Matheussen was cc-ed on this email chain but the exchange was not directly from him. It was Bill Shanahan on Matheussen’s behalf.

From: John LawlessSent: Friday, October 17, 2008 2:41 PMTo: John Matheussen; Robert GrossCc: William Brooks; William ShanahanSubject: Company Car

John and Bob,

I am not sure the Company policy regarding Employees who receive a car allowance obtaining an Authority car for Authority Business.

Bill Shanahan has requested a car for all of you to travel for a meeting.

I assume since you are both going you have approved of this trip with an Authority vehicle. If I am wrong in this assumption please let me know.

All: John brought up a good point so I investigated it and there is no policy that prohibits anyone with a car allowance to use a fleet pool car for company business. I checked the following sources: 1) Policy and Procedures Manual – Series 200, Policy #209 DRPA Vehicle Policy; 2) HR Rules 3) Finance Rules. Bill